


You'll Owe Me One

by GinnyBloomPotter



Series: What Siblings Do [4]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Cute, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, No Incest, Pre-Canon, Protective Number Five | The Boy, Protective Vanya Hargreeves, Siblings, Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:13:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25873411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GinnyBloomPotter/pseuds/GinnyBloomPotter
Summary: Sometimes, it felt kind of like their catchphrase."You'll owe me one."What they really meant was "I love you."
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy & Vanya Hargreeves
Series: What Siblings Do [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1297865
Comments: 18
Kudos: 388





	You'll Owe Me One

**Author's Note:**

> I got this idea when I saw that car scene, when Five looks through the window and tells Vanya "You'll owe me one." It felt like a sweet thing, a thing they'd probably done through their childhood. And so, this fic was born!

**One**

Seven watched in mounting horror as the vase on the end table wobbled. It felt almost like it was going in slow motion. She lurched to catch it as Five clambered to his feet. She didn’t move fast enough.

Father had warned him. He warned him over and over again to be careful where he jumped, to know where he was going before he tried. This wasn’t the first thing Number Five had broken in his practicing, and Father was  _ not  _ going to be happy. 

Five didn’t look all that sorry, but then the crashing, shattering porcelain brought with it the booming noise of footsteps rushing into the room.

“Number Five!” 

And she could see this going horribly. She  _ knew _ he was going to be punished, and he was going to be punished harshly and--

“It was me!” Seven blurted out before she could think it through. “I didn’t look where I was going and I walked into the table.”

She let her eyes fill with tears and she gave a mournful look. Five was obviously puzzled, but he didn’t argue.

Father glanced between the two of them, and Seven held her ground. Finally, he sighed. “Very well then, Number Seven. There will be no supper for you tonight. Go to your room; get out of my sight.”

She turned tail and ran for it. She was already hungry, and she knew missing dinner would eat a hole in her tummy, but this was Five’s fifth broken thing. The punishment was sure to be far, far worse for him. She didn’t regret anything.

She was almost to her door when Number Five appeared beside her. “You didn’t have to do that.”

Seven shrugged. “I know. You’ll owe me one.”

The six year old children grinned at each other. 

“Race you to your room!” Five yelled suddenly, and then he was off, and she smiled harder as she raced to catch up with him.

**Two**

The noise coming from her stomach seemed to fill up the whole room. It wasn’t hard. Her room was the size of a closet. 

Number Seven stared up at the ceiling. Part of her wished she could go back in time and stop herself from taking the blame for the broken vase. She told that part of her to shut up.

She could hear the muffled sounds of her brothers and sister coming up the stairs. Dinner must have been over, then. She turned over in bed and faced the wall. 

Had the others even noticed that she hadn’t been there? Five knew, of course, but did the others care?

A timid knock sounded at the door. She got up and opened it. 

“Are you okay?” Six asked. He and Two and Four were standing on the other side of the door. One and Three weren’t far away, obviously heading for their own bedrooms but lingering in the hallway like they were waiting for an answer. Five was nowhere to be seen.

“Why weren’t you at dinner?” Two added.

“I broke a vase,” Seven admitted. Four looked gleeful.

“Seven got in trouble!” he sing-songed.

Two looked doubtful. “ _ You _ broke the vase?”

“That’s what I told Father.”

“There are cameras in there,” Ben pointed out. “He’d know if you were lying.”

“Hopefully, he won’t check.”

“I don’t understand,” Number One gave up on any pretenses of going back to his room. “If you didn’t do it, why are you taking the punishment?”

Her face grew warm. She thought about Five, about the way he’d looked after the last time something broke because of his powers, and she looked at One with a renewed resolve.

“I can take it. And if I take it, no one else has to.”

******************

They’d left her alone and gone to bed almost an hour before when there was another knock at her door, and when she got up to answer it, Five was standing on the other side, bearing a plate with a clumsily assembled sandwich on it. 

“I could hear your stomach growling from my room,” he told her, shoving the plate at her chest. She took it, not knowing quite what else to do. 

“You made me a sandwich?”

“Dad shouldn’t make you miss meals. You need to eat.”

“One night won’t hurt me.”

“Good thing we won’t find out.”

And she wanted to tell him that this is far from the first time she’s been forced to skip a meal, and it definitely won’t be close to being the last. She wanted to tell him that this is far from the worst thing their father has ever punished them with. She wanted to tell him that marshmallows aren’t exactly a nutritious sandwich filling. 

“Thank you,” she told him instead. 

He shrugged. “You’ll owe me one.”

He turned and headed back down the hallway, towards his bedroom. 

“Actually, I think this makes us even,” she whisper-shouted after him.

He didn’t answer, feigning temporary deafness.

She smiled and shook her head fondly, closing the door and going to her bed to eat.

Peanut butter and marshmallow wasn’t her favorite sandwich. Actually, she barely even liked it. Five loved it though, and it was the only sandwich he knew how to make. And it was too sweet and the peanut butter was smooth and not crunchy so the whole thing was soft and gooey and not how she liked her sandwiches…

And yet, starving as she was, it was the best thing she’d ever tasted. It tasted like love.

**Three**

She was only eight, but even now, Seven was growing used to being forgotten. When she went downstairs during free time and found the others already in the middle of a game of hide and seek, she barely even reacted. It wasn’t the first time. It probably wouldn’t be the last. 

It still ached though, in a part of her torso that usually just felt kind of empty, and she couldn’t help the shiver of loneliness that ran down her spine. 

She found Six hiding behind a chair in the library when she went in to get a book, and she froze and he froze and they were frozen in each other's sights, both the deers and both the headlights. 

Five walked into the room and smirked at her. “Good job, Seven!” he crowed. “One more point for us.”

And that took her by surprise. The way he was speaking, it sounded like she was part of the game, like she was on his team, but she hadn’t known the game was happening until she’d heard Five shout “Ready or not, here I come,” and she hadn’t been looking for anyone when she’d stumbled upon her brother behind the armchair. 

Six didn’t look any less confused, but he also looked resigned, and he went along with it. 

“Nice job,” he admitted, standing up. 

Number Three appeared on the other side of the doorway. “Hang on!” she insisted. “Seven wasn’t playing! That’s not fair; you can’t just decide that she’s part of the game now!”

Five looked puzzled. “What are you talking about? She’s been here the whole time. She’s on my team. You all agreed.”

“No we didn’t!” Three almost stomped her foot, but caught herself at the last moment. 

“Okay, fine. You don’t want her to play? You tell her that. Look Seven in the eye and tell her she’s not allowed to play with us.”

And that made Three look embarrassed. She tucked her head down, looking at her feet. “I didn’t mean that,” she mumbled, and Five grinned. 

“Well then, that’s settled. Reminder!” he shouted out suddenly. “Seven’s on my team! If she finds you, that’s a point for us!”

Three turned to stomp off, and Six patted Seven on the shoulder before following. 

She looked at Five. “I wasn’t on your team,” she pointed out. “You guys were playing without me.” It wasn’t an accusation, just a statement of fact, but it still sounded a little bit like one, and he winced. 

“Don’t be stupid, Seven. You’re always on my team. Let’s go. I think Four is in the trunk by Mom’s charging station.”

She grinned and took his outstretched hand, and he pulled her out of the room.

He stopped on the other side of the door and glanced at her. 

“You owe me one, Seven.”

**Four**

_ 14) In what year was Theodore Roosevelt elected President of the United States? _

Seven chewed the end of her pencil. It was a tricky question. He became President because McKinley was assassinated, but he was elected after that, so was the answer when he was elected or when he first took hold of office?

She decided to put it all down, just in case, but stopped halfway through writing it when Five appeared in front of the table. He looked angry and irate-- although, the two were essentially the same weren’t they?-- and she put down her pencil, ready for the tirade.

“Why do I even try with these  _ idiots _ ?”

“What happened?”

She sat there listening for a good ten minutes before he stopped long enough to get a word in edgewise, but she didn’t take the opportunity to say anything. She knew he wasn’t looking for words of support or encouragement or advice. He just wanted a breathing wall to yell at.

He finished and took a seat at the table beside her. “So what are you doing?”

“History assignment. I’m almost done. Speaking of, what did you put down for number 14? I’m not sure what answer Mom is looking for.”

His face went white. “History assignment? What history assignment.”

“The homework about the turn of the 20th century. Did you not do it?”

“I forgot all about it! How-- shit!”

She winced at the foul language. He rolled his eyes. 

“Oh grow up, Seven. What am I supposed to do? We have class in fifteen minutes, and I haven’t even started the reading!”

She pursed her lips, thinking hard. 

“Go get the question sheet,” she told him, and he was so panicked that he didn’t argue. He didn’t even jump. He just ran for the door. 

She scribbled down the rest of the answer, then moved on to question 15, the last on the page. Five came back just as she finished with it. 

“Here,” she passed him her answers and pencil. “Make sure you change the answer enough so that Mom doesn’t pick up that you copied the answers.”

He started writing. “Thanks for this, Seven.”

“Yeah, well don’t mention it. Really. Don’t. If Four hears that I let you copy my homework, he’ll never stop asking me.”

“Really though. You didn’t have to.”

“Yeah, well, you’ll owe me one.”

They smiled at each other quickly before Five went back to copying down her answers.

**Five**

They were twelve when Father told Mom that she could give the children names. He announced it at lunch, one day, and once the meal had ended, all of them were abuzz with questions and excitement. 

Seven helped Mom clear the table, and she took advantage of the alone time by the sink to ask Mom about her name.

“Do you have any ideas yet, for what name you’ll give me?”

Mom looked stricken. 

“Oh, Seven. I’m so sorry. Your father told me to come up with six names. Just… just for the Academy.”

And her heart broke. “Oh. Okay.”

“I’m so sorry, Seven…”

“No. Don’t. It’s… it’s okay.”

She put the last glass in the sink and ran from the room before the first tear escaped from her eye.

******************

Their father didn’t join them for dinner the next day. Seven supposed he couldn’t be bothered to be around the excitement. 

She’d come to terms with the fact that she wasn’t going to get a name. She’d cried herself to sleep the night before, but she woke in the morning resigned to her fate.

Mom went around the table, starting with Two. “Number Two. Your name will be Diego. It’s Spanish. It means ‘Supplanter,’ and it is to remind you that you don’t need to be given anything. If you really want it, you can take it for yourself.”

Tw--  _ Diego _ \-- smiled, and Mom moved on. 

“Number One. Your name is Luther, a German name, meaning ‘Army of the People.’ This is to remind you who you are fighting for.

“Number Three. Allison. It’s a Scottish name, meaning ‘Noble,’ given to you because that is what you are. Noble, royal, dignified.

“Number Four. I’ve decided that your name should be Klaus. It’s German, and it means, ‘the People’s Victory.’ So you will always remember that you deserve to succeed.

“Number Six. Ben. ‘Son’ in Hebrew, because that’s who you are. My son. My boy. Not a monster, not a creature,  _ Ben. _ ”

Seven was expecting Mom to skip over her and go straight to Five, but she didn’t. She looked straight at her and smiled. 

“Number Seven.”

“I thought Dad said not to give me a name.”

“He only said I should come up with six of them. He said nothing about who they had to go to.”

Seven looked at Five. If she was getting a name, that meant he wouldn’t. Except, he didn’t look at all disappointed, just smug. 

“Seven, your name will be Vanya. It’s Russian, and it means ‘Gracious Gift of God.’ I decided on Vanya so that, no matter what happens, you will always remember that you are a gift. You are special, and important. A  _ gift.” _

Sev-- Vanya wanted to cry. She could feel her eyes tear up. Before she could talk herself out of it, she was leaping out of her seat and throwing herself at Mom, wrapping her arms around her waist.

“Thank you,” she whispered into her stomach. “Thank you.”

******************

Vanya stopped Five before he could get to his room. “Did you tell Mom to give your name to me?”

“I don’t need a name,” Five defended. “It doesn’t mean much of anything. It’s just a method of getting someone’s attention, and Five works just fine.”

That smug look didn’t go away, though, and Vanya got the feeling that there was more to the story.

She threw her arms around him, and he stiffened. 

“Thank you, Five. You have no idea how much--”

“I didn’t do it for you,” Five pushed her away, but he was struggling not to smile.

They separated, and each headed for their bedrooms. She was about to open the door when Five called her. 

“Vanya?” 

And god did it feel good to have a name. 

“Yes?”

Five smirked. “You’ll owe me one.

**Author's Note:**

> I know, I know, I have finished "Do I Remind You..." yet. I usually try to not to post things until I've finished my WiP, but I couldn't resist. Hopefully, I'll have another chapter of that up by next week. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this one!
> 
> Let me know what you thought! Thanks for reading!


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